


The Blooming Rose

by Corehealer



Series: EmetWoL Event - Valentione's Week 2021 [3]
Category: Ascian - Fandom, Final Fantasy XIV, Shadowbringers - Fandom
Genre: Amaurot (Final Fantasy XIV), F/M, Love at First Concept Malfunction, Love at First Sight, Matchmaking, Memory, Other, Roses, Teasing, The Forum, shoebill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:34:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29454621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corehealer/pseuds/Corehealer
Summary: Entries Three and Four in the EmetWoL Valentione's Week event. For these Valentione's Day prompts, both The Moment They Fell in Love and Teasing, a trip back in time to when Sarah, as Persephone, first met Hades via their mutual acquaintance.Y'shtola remembers some memories of her Ancient life as Hythlodaeus, specifically her recollection of his time spent witnessing Persephone's presentation of her very first concept creation to the Amaurot Forum. In the company of Emet-Selch, he saw the way his friend Hades and his other friend Persephone looked at one another during the presentation. After it's conclusion, he goes looking for them both, to try and gauge this spark he witnessed, and see if it might be time to light a fire between them in turn.
Relationships: Azem/Emet-Selch (Final Fantasy XIV), Emet-Selch (Final Fantasy XIV)/Original Character(s), Emet-Selch/Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV)
Series: EmetWoL Event - Valentione's Week 2021 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2155329
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	The Blooming Rose

The thing that stood out the most for her was the cheering. The almost deafening applause in the Ancient tongue, still so strange to her recollection but full of colour and light. Indescribable in words, yet endlessly enjoyable and enrapturing.

She set her tea down and leaned back into her chair, eyes closed, remembering...

***

He sat among the throngs as they clapped and offered words of praise. Hythlodaeus, clapping alongside them all, and smiling down at his longtime friend. Persephone.

She had just concluded her presentation of her very first concept. Many long years before she became Azem, and even several years before she became the head of the Cocytus Library, not far from the Forum where they now found themselves. She had finally created something she could share with the whole city.

A humble little flower, and yet, it elicited great interest in the crowd gathered to see this rising star’s first offering towards the betterment of the art of creation. A rose, for which she still lacked a name, but which budded with beautiful white petals tinged with pinks and reds at their tips. A fair few thorns, but less than others of its kind.

Something fit for Halmarut’s garden, but she had created it for a different purpose, all on her own. The thing that most attracted the attentions of all.

She had dedicated it to Azem, and to Emet-Selch. The current ones, or more specifically, their roles of office. She bid them take this rose and spread it to the far corners of the Star, to lay it across the graves of those who had been taken before their time, in the places between cities that remained in nature, and open to accidents or foul turns of fate.

Though the Ancients lived long lives of peace, they were not insusceptible to death by such things. She wished to see them off to the Underworld with a kind act of memory, so that they would know that their loved ones, with their love represented by the rose, would be waiting for their return. In whatever form their reincarnations took. However long they needed to wait.

Such a sentiment as this, connected with death, was a rare sight among a people who seldom considered death as anything more than a distant thing, to be met honestly and openly and with a smile. Each of them knew their own demise, if it could be called that, was but a step towards yet another life. One which would continue the old one, but offer new possibilities and new experiences in turn.

Persephone’s rose came to be seen as a gesture that brought them all back to the grounded reality of death, more specifically as it existed beyond their sheltered existence, but which accepted it and even seemed to cherish it. To cherish the chance to say goodbye, so novel an experience for the Ancients, and let those who left know they would be remembered.

As she bowed and took her leave from the central dais in the Forum’s main circular hall, it was these sentiments that rose in applause and praise among the people who had previously been seated around her, listening intently. She’d been gripped with pangs of stage fright and anxiety, endlessly worried that this thing she’d spent months finely tuning would be unequal to this day.

Her fears were now fled, and the smile never left her face as she departed to the entrance hall, to join the waiting group of her librarian peers who were waiting for her, themselves cheering for her successful presentation.

“Well done Persephone! We knew you could do it!”

“We aught to get these roses growing in the Library garden too! As a tribute!”

“They’ll surely attract more guests eager to meet the woman who created them herself!”

“Come, let’s all get something celebratory to eat, to savour this moment together.”

Persephone smiled, jostled around a bit by hugs and patted backs from her friends from Cocytus. In the back of her mind, however, she was still stuck on the few times her eyes had met his, far above the dais, during her presentation. She clutched the rose she’d used for demonstration close to her breast and followed the others outside, lost in other thoughts.

Hythlodaeus, for his part, was still seated, but only because his attention had been taken from Persephone to the man seated next to him. Emet-Selch himself, one of a few of the Convocation in attendance that day alongside luminaries such as Lahabrea, Nabriales and Pashtarot. They had risen and applauded too, albeit with slightly more restraint and decorum as was required by their high offices.

Emet-Selch did much the same, but for perhaps a different reason. Hythlodaeus got the sense his old friend was quite taken with not only the rose and the gift it would be for his own role, as caretaker of the departed, but also by the woman who had offered it up.

He did not recall a time when Persephone had ever had occasion to meet any of the Convocation, Emet-Selch included, despite the two of them being his mutual friend. But the look in his eyes now suggested that he was very interested in meeting her, despite never having known of her before now.

He wondered if perhaps it was time to change that.

***

“Emet-Selch, wait up!”

The Forum had concluded its showings of new concepts for the day, with several of them having been approved already for general use, Persephone’s unnamed rose included. The crowd was beginning to thin out, but a few groups of individuals lingered on outside chatting. Hythlodaeus managed to catch his friend just as he separated from his Convocation peers and was preparing to head in the direction of his home.

“ _Ah, my friend, I almost forgot about you in the hustle and bustle of events; did you enjoy today’s selection of creations_?”

“Of course, many delightful sights and shapes, not to mention potential uses! And that rose!”

“ _The one your friend... Persephone, you said her name was? That she created_?”

“Yes, that’s the one.”

“ _Her very first creation. She has a long and fruitful career ahead of her, I think_.”

He smirked, and clasped Hades on the shoulder.

“You seemed quite taken with it, judging by how enraptured you were with her presentation. Do you imagine it will be useful to your role?”

He nodded as the two began to walk away from the Forum together, Amaurot’s myriad lights and high spires surrounding them in the early evening dusk.

“ _Indeed. It is an inspired sentiment, and not one I would expect from so novice a creator. I shall need to speak to Halmarut about nurturing a steady supply of them in the Anyder before I have cause to go outside the city next_.”

“I have to wonder as well, my friend... was it just the rose you were taken with? Or its creator?”

Hades stopped briefly, ostensibly to allow a group of other attendees to mill by before them towards the street crossing ahead. He turned to Hythlodaeus.

“ _What are you implying, exactly_?”

“Oh... only that you were a bit more interested in the presentation than you typically are, and seemed drawn to her most of all, even with its content.”

A sigh, as Hades shook his head.

“ _You have some plot already in mind, don’t you? To play matchmaker with me again. Absolutely not. I am already recovering from the last individual you attempted to pair me up with. Something about us making ‘a cute couple’ and how you so enjoyed the sounds she made after each of her jokes landed flat but which you conveniently always found hilarious_?”

“Oh, you mean Hecate? Come now, you know you enjoyed that most ‘memorable’ visit to Anamnesis to see her!”

“ _And I’m still told the researchers there all swap stories about it over cups of tea and laughter in the cafeteria there. And that explosion in Noesis! I almost faced a censure when I returned to the Capitol the next day_!”

He glared at his friend, drawing slightly closer and almost clicking both their masks together in annoyance.

“ _I would prefer it if you left my love life alone going forward, Hythlodaeus_.”

He began to walk off on his own, his friend gesturing on behind him.

“You’re not getting any younger Hades! We both know you’d rather not spend all that time ahead of you in so taxing a role alone!”

“ _And that is my decision to make, ultimately, now isn’t it? Take whatever fanciful notions of what you thought you saw and bury them. Good evening_.”

Within another moment he was gone, disappearing into the growing push and pull of robed figures making their way to their homes and tasks. The evening rush was beginning, and Hythlodaeus suspected he would not make much headway catching up with Hades, much less convincing him in a direct manner. But, for his own good, this was not something his friend intended to drop.

And not just for his sake. Though his protestations only seemed in Hythlodaeus’ mind to be more proof that he was correct to follow this course.

He shrugged, and motioned off in the direction of where he supposed Persephone could be found, now that some time had passed. It was time to gauge her own interest.

***

The first stars in the sky were beginning to appear that night when he finally managed to locate her.

She’d been dragged around town for a good few bells by her friends, to restaurants and communal spaces to chat and be showered in more praise. And the endless questions, about how she had managed to come up with so novel an idea all on her own involving just a little flower. What had inspired her to come up with this use for it.

And one or two gossips who had the same thoughts as Hythlodaeus now had in mind; was this some complex ploy to propose to one or more of the Convocation? These thoughts she immediately torpedoed in short order, profuse in her denials and eager at times to be free of the crowds she had suddenly foisted upon herself with her success.

She’d finally managed to break free with an excuse about some outstanding matter or other she had left to complete that night in the Library. In truth, it was nothing so onerous or urgent that it could not be left for tomorrow. But it gave her a chance to avoid thinking too much after all of that conversation. She figured it would be preferable to her bed at home, where her mind could wander into self-doubts again.

Better to cherish the afterglow while completing things that needed to be done anyway.

When he finally came upon her, she was stacking bookcases in the Natural History wing of Cocytus, alone. Humming some tune and oblivious to her surroundings until he spoke, startling her.

“Good evening to you, my friend! I didn’t have a chance to catch you before your other friends spirited you away. How are you? Not too exhausted from all that ego stroking I hope?”

“Hythlodaeus! Inside voice!” She snapped at him, more out of surprise and annoyance at his latest successful sneaking maneuver. The man had a talent for showing up silently where one least expected him, when one least expected him.

He quieted his voice, sarcasm dripping from each syllable.

“Oh, my most sincere apologies, Persephone. I neglected to recall I was in a library! Though at this hour I don’t imagine there will be that many ears to distract with my words for you.”

She sighed, placing the book she presently had in hand into its proper place on the shelf in front of her before turning to her friend.

“So what do you want? Here to congratulate me as well? I appreciate it, truly, but I think I’ve had my fill of drama and kindness today. The Forum’s enjoyment was enough.”

He sat in a chair next to her at the table placed between the various stacks for reading purposes, picking up a book from her stack to idly flip through it while he talked.

“Hey! I was about to place that here!”

“Inside voice, Persephone!” He huffed a laugh as she clicked her tongue in annoyance, having turned her words against her.

“I’m here to congratulate you, yes, but I wanted to ask about something else important as well.”

“And what might that be?” She turned her eyebrow up a little from under her white mask, still glaring a bit at him.

“I noticed at the end of your presentation that you were quite taken with someone in the audience. Someone whom you had dedicated your new creation to...”

“Oh not you too! I didn’t mean to give that impression, even if it is a rose. The offering is purely platonic, I assure you. Only for their roles, nothing more.”

“Oh I don’t doubt you think that on some level, and that others believe it past a surface level of teasing. But from where I’m standing, or rather sitting, I suspect you had a bit more in mind than all that for one individual in particular.”

“Your mutual acquaintance, still stinging over the Anamnesis incident I take it?”

Another laugh.

“You know about that? It must be the talk of the town then. Fantastic.” He clapped his hands briefly after closing the book and placing it back on her pile.

“I came to inquire as to your thoughts on him, but also, I wanted to know how your other creation was doing.”

She blinked at him a few times.

“The bird? Oh its almost complete, actually. I still need to fine tune it a bit though; it has an awful habit of glaring at people.”

“I can think of someone who might enjoy such a creature.”

She stared at him for a few moments in silence.

“You think I like Hades, don’t you?”

She knew his real name. Interesting detail.

“Well, you already know his actual name. And I couldn’t help but notice the way you looked at him.”

“I’m not going to act like I don’t think highly of the man, certainly, but I... I think you might have the wrong idea about me here, my friend. I wasn’t trying to get his attention with this display. There is more to my desire to create than wooing a mate.”

Hythlodaeus leaned into the desk and smiled, steepling his fingers together.

“I think you should try and redouble your efforts with that bird, even so. You’ve got a meeting with him in the Forum in a few weeks.”

Persephone was halfway towards placing another book on the shelf when she processed these words and, with a thud and a yelp of pain, had dropped the book onto her foot, having loosed her grasp on it.

“Agh! Damnit... what were you thinking? It’s not ready for a personal display to anyone, let alone one of the Fourteen! Are you mad?”

“Inside voice.”

She growled at him, now leaning down to caress her foot underneath her shoes, drawing a little bit of aether into the bruise to ease the pain.

“I can’t believe you would do something like this. How did you even manage it?”

“He’s my friend, and more besides, he is quite taken with your work and wanted to meet the woman who accomplished such a beautiful display of creation without any outside assistance. Would you truly wish to say no to a Convocation member and their words of praise?”

His bluff was a bit threadbare, he mused to himself, but at present appeared to be working. He’d figure out the details of how he would get Hades there at the appointed hour later.

“Now, before you fret overlong, I am happy to assist you with your bird and its completion before that time, so that it is ready for you to share with him. And I think its high time for two of my best friends to meet in any case. I imagine you’d like him.”

“Oh, I imagine you’d think so, at any rate.” She sighed, lifting herself back up to a standing posture.

“Fine. I’ll go, but only if you help me finish the concept and polish out the kinks. Okay?”

“Deal.” He raised his pinky to her in the cute manner he enjoyed doing with her.

“Pinky swears? Really? You act as though its still our first century together ‘Daeus.”

“We are forever young at heart, are we not? Think of it as insurance. If I don’t come through for you, I promise I’ll stack every shelf in here for a month, so you don’t have to.”

She smiled softly and took his pinky, the two of them squeezing them together.

“Oh very well... But I choose the section and the books you need to put away, alright?”

Already assuming he would fail in this important endeavour. Oh ye of little faith.

“Whatever you say, ‘Sephone.”

An exchange of nods.

“It’s getting late, and I’d like to finish this task before it gets too dark out. So run along you; we’ll talk about this more tomorrow. And I’ll bring the concept crystal along so you can have a look.”

“Very well. I’ll meet you in the lobby here around noon tomorrow. Until then!”

She shushed him as he clapped his hands again with glee, rubbing them together as he departed back towards the entrance of this section of the library. As he went, he could hear her sigh once more before resuming her humming tone, the lyrical notes somewhat happier than they had been.

***

Weeks passed, and the two of them grappled with the concept. They managed to get it fully fleshed out and working as she desired, with the exception of the glaring. He proposed that it be left alone, quipping that it somehow felt appropriate for a ‘shoebill’, as they came to call it in reference to her stubbing her toe on that book, to glare in such a way as she had at him that night.

Hythlodaeus left her to mill about one of the parks outside the Forum on the allotted day, arousing only mild suspicion from her given the supposed officialness of this visit. He managed to track down Hades in his office in the Capitol, and with a measure of swiftness and some protest from the man, brought him to the Forum for their ‘chance’ encounter.

He’d told him he’d be meeting some foreign dignitary that Elidibus had brought with him to the city, who had requested to meet the esteemed Emet-Selch in person. A not uncommon occurrence. That it was Hythlodaeus making this request however that made him immediately believe it was more of a prank he was walking into. Again. But he relented, if only to get it over with and find respite to complete the day’s work later.

When they finally locked eyes, they both knew instantly that they had been had, but somehow, it no longer seemed to matter. Though far from the moment when they would come to collect their thoughts and feelings on the matter close to their hearts, about how they had begun to feel, in this moment they each had an inkling of the interest building in one another. And that was enough to keep them both from being too angry at their mutual friend.

Even as he did jest with them about the pretexts for this meeting, and then laughed hysterically when Persephone’s shoebill relieved itself on Hades’ shoulder, soiling his robe from top to bottom.

“Must not have worked out all the kinks after all! Hahahaha!”

“I am never going to live this down...”

“ _And neither will he, if I have anything to say about it..._ ” Hades glared daggers into the gyrating form of Hythlodaeus, bent over with laughter, one of several now who were present in this public space who stopped and turned to chuckle at this most unique sight. A Convocation member, covered in creation dung.

“I must apologize for him, again. Had I known this was all done under false pretenses, I would have-”

“ _No need to apologize, my friend. He means well, as I am sure you can agree. Even if his intentions are often misplaced in their execution. It is no trouble; I’ll just need to go home and change into something fresh before returning to work_.”

She sighed a breath of relief, smiling a tiny bit under her robe hood and mask at how he had called her his friend.

For his part, he stole a quick glance in her direction, smiling in turn under his own hood and mask. What a charming woman this was.

“ _I am glad to have met the one who bestowed upon me such a useful gift for my role. My deepest thanks for this gesture, Persephone_.”

He glanced up at the shoebill, still unflinching in its spot atop his left shoulder.

“ _And I like this bird too... a shoebill, you called it? I imagine Lahabrea would enjoy meeting such a bright young star in the field of creation and phantomology as well, and your latest creation. You should come visit the Capitol sometime; I’d be happy to introduce you_.”

“Oh I... I mean... maybe? Yes. Yes, I would like that. Yes.”

She nodded a few times in rapid succession, eliciting a chuckle from him.

“ _It’s a date then. And I must ensure I find time to come visit you as well. I have been meaning to find time to visit the Library again in good company. This would make a finer excuse than most I could conjure up_.”

“Maybe we can find a quiet corner to read together away from him!”

The two of them exchanged a laugh, which Hythlodaeus joined in on in turn, having now returned his attention to them both.

“There aren’t so many bookshelves in your library that I cannot find your favourite hiding places ‘Sephone! But I’ll enjoy the challenge of trying to find both of you.”

He grinned from ear to ear, even as they both groaned a bit, sighing happily.

“ _I must regretfully away now, my friends. To get this mess cleaned up and return to my duties. But I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for you. And I’m sure he’ll be on hand to exchange messages. Until next time_.”

He bowed slightly, stealing a final smile and glance in her direction before departing. The shoebill dissipated back into her waiting concept crystal housing it as he went.

“I’d call that a successful first impression, wouldn’t you?”

“And you’ll still be stacking the Romantic Fiction section for TWO months now, after that display!”

“Oh come now, it isn’t my fault the bird defecated on him, now is it?!”

He waved his arms about feebly as the two of them began to chuckle and talk, walking back in the direction of Cocytus and her latest round of tasks. Not far away on a nearby overhanging walkway, Emet-Selch leaned over a railing and smiled once more in her direction before continuing on, lost in thought.

It would prove to be the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship. And an enduring bond; moreso than either of them, or their mischievous friend, could yet predict.

***

Y’shtola now came to reflect on all of this and more such memories as she idly turned the spoon in her saucer of milk tea, her thoughts only returning to the present when she heard the rousing laughter of the two individuals in question, as they now were. They were seated not far away in the memory of the apartment Persephone had once inhabited in the ancient past, now shared by several of those who Persephone had won the hearts of over the years.

Sarah and Hades, weathered by time and duty and a long time spent apart by cruel fate’s hand. Now finally together again, and able to not only help themselves with remembering the fond lives they had led, but help ‘Shtola and a growing number of others with their own myriad recollections.

Of them, only she was present alongside them in this moment. Their dear friend and colleague Hythlodaeus, now very different then he’d been at the time he’d managed to bring them together for the first time. Looking now at the two of them happily chatting and laughing together, with the knowledge of all that had come between that time and this one, all the good and the bad and the smiles and the tears, she couldn’t help but smile herself now, and allow a solitary tear to depart her eyes and run down her cheek.

She took the spoon from the saucer, and sipped her tea gingerly, before joining in on their spirited conversation. The smile not soon to leave her lips.

**Author's Note:**

> As is the case with my formal series shipping Emet-Selch with my Warrior of Light (which this is a seasonal event extension of), I italicize Emet's speech here out of respect and admiration for him and to add definition to his words when he speaks in a scene. Just for clarification.
> 
> I ship Y'shtola with Sarah in a very 'best friends with occasional benefits' kind of way, and also headcanon her as the Source shard of Hythlodaeus. In this piece, however, she serves primarily as an extension of his matchmaking acumen, in her capacity as the one who, as friends with them both in ancient days, managed to bring Hades and Persephone together, and sowed the seeds of their long relationship. One that continues in modern times, and is perhaps stronger for all they have endured together in the company of their friends and loved ones.


End file.
